On the eve of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Sen. Ted Cruz had this advice for conservative activists: stick to your principles and win the argument, and winning elections will follow.

Cruz (R-Texas) was the keynote speaker at the annual Weyrich Awards dinner in downtown Washington, a gathering of conservative groups and activists. He’ll deliver the closing speech at CPAC on Saturday evening.

“It is wonderful to be among friends or, as some might say, fellow wacko birds,” he said, to laughs from the crowd. “If standing for the Constitution, standing for liberty, standing for values makes one a wacko bird … then I am pleased that birds of a feather flock together.”

Cruz, a Tea Party favorite who rode grassroots enthusiasm to defeat establishment Republican candidate David Dewhurst in a runoff last summer, has been a star of the conservative movement since he took office in January. Cruz spoke for 40 minutes and received multiple standing ovations from the crowd of a few hundred people.

The freshman senator spoke about being an underdog in the Senate race — and how a conversation with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) at the Weyrich Awards in 2011 was a turning point for him.

“My support was at 2 percent and the margin of error was at 3 percent, so technically I could have been at negative 1 percent,” he joked. “Mike … was the first major national player to jump on board and support my campaign, and that happened right here at the Weyrich dinner two years ago.”

Amid the countless Republican autopsies of what went wrong last fall, Cruz said Republicans must not stray from their core beliefs. The first step to winning elections, he said, is winning the political argument.

“I think 2014 has the potential to be a very, very good year at the ballot box but let me tell you right now: the number one way we could screw it up is if Republicans fail to stand for principle,” he said.

One key example of that devotion to principle, he said, was Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster last week.

“More than a few in the Republican conference who viewed his quest as a strange and quixotic quest,” he said. “Rand stood there alone, and he talked and he talked and he talked, and something incredible started happening: we started seeing more and more come and rally to his aid.”

Cruz was among those who got up to join Paul, which he noted was the first time he’d ever spoken on the Senate floor.

He said true conservatives don’t need to tout their credentials at every turn and that actions speak for themselves.

“If you’re really a conservative, you shouldn’t have to tell anybody because you should bear the stripes from having been in the battle,” he said. “This room understands we need our elected leaders to do the same.”

Cruz said that in order to “win the argument” against Democrats, two key words should be “tattooed on every [Republican’s] hand”: “growth” and “opportunity.”

If Republicans can stress those two ideas instead of focusing on cuts and negative ideas, he said, they’ll be able to convince the American people that Republicans are actually the party that’s best for struggling Americans.

“One of the most painful things about being a conservative is how many elected Republicans do not understand that our policies work — and they work especially for those struggling to climb the economic ladder,” he said. “We’re not going to win the argument unless we understand that our ideas work.”

This concept is one that President Ronald Reagan understood, he said.

“President Reagan didn’t have to agonize over a speech about how to convey that because he lived it. He understood this is who we are as Americans and every one of us in this room understands that also.”